Author: garydickson

Gary Dickson is an inveterate traveler, an avid gourmet, and a Francophile sans merci. He received his B.A. degree in history while in the United States and then attended graduate school at l’Université de Lausanne, Faculté des Lettres to study l’histoire in Switzerland. In addition to his poetry, Gary has written two novels: An Improbable Pairing, a 1960s historical romance, and its romantic … thriller sequel, A Spy with Scruples. Gary lives in Los Angeles with his wife Susie where he continues to write.more

The unintended consequences of acing a test . . . or when all else fails, try blackmail.In July of 1964, after marrying in Paris, Desirée and Scott Stoddard are honeymooning in the South of France when their idyll is interrupted by a notice from Scott’s draft board advising him that his status is being reviewed. Desirée, the former French countess who is already three months pregnant, doesn’t … understand why her new husband, an American, must traipse off to some military base in Germany to be tested. Scott’s remarkable scores on the tests attract the attention of the CIA, and…

In 1963 Europe, American graduate student Scott enters into an affair with a divorced French countess — much to the shock of Countess de Rovere’s family and friends — in this coming-of-age novel full of luxury, romance, and scandal.